


Highwire

by carolinecrane



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-10
Updated: 2011-12-10
Packaged: 2017-10-27 04:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/291673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolinecrane/pseuds/carolinecrane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David just wants to know where he stands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Highwire

They were sitting shoulder to shoulder on the roof, leaning against the low wall and looking out over rows of laundry and concrete. David wasn't sure when or why, but somehow it had become a habit to come up here before dinners with his family, like a way to decompress after a day of hawking papes wherever they could find a crowd of willing buyers. Or maybe it was just so Jack could smoke away from the disapproving eyes of his mother; David wasn't sure of the real reason, but he wasn't about to complain.

Because he didn't get Jack to himself all that much; either it was the other newsies, or Les was hanging around, or even worse, Sarah. And he loved his brother and sister – knew they loved Jack, too – so he didn't resent the attention Jack gave them. He just liked knowing he was…special, maybe. Important, the way Jack was important to him.

If he was important to Jack he could live with seeing Jack kiss his sister, and he could live with having to share most of their time with the rest of the world. As long as he got a few moments like this, just once in awhile, he could deal with anything else. Well. Almost anything.

"You ever sorry you stayed?" he asked, watching Jack out of the corner of his eye as he took another drag off his smoke.

"Nah," Jack answered after a moment's consideration, that grin turning up his mouth as he looked over at David. "Teddy Roosevelt was right, I still got stuff to do here."

"Yeah? Like what?" He wasn't sure what he was expecting Jack to say. Maybe he expected Jack to mention Sarah, to pour some more salt in that wound, and David wondered if he'd ever stop torturing himself over that. It was stupid, because guys were supposed to find some girl to fall for and he knew he'd have to do the same thing eventually too, but he wished they had a little more time before girls started coming between them.

"Like the sweatshop kids," Jack answered, that same fire in his eyes that David had seen back when he'd first joked about a newsies strike, and David's stomach did a little flip. "They helped us out, we can't just leave them in the lurch now that we got what we want, right? We should help them like Spot and the boys helped us."

"How we gonna do that?" David asked, but he already knew the answer. He'd heard his father telling his mother late at night when they thought he was asleep that Jack was a natural leader, that he was a born union man, and if he didn't get himself killed he could do amazing things. It was the 'get himself killed' part that kept David up at night, and kept him as close to Jack's side as possible. Because he'd already seen Jack get pretty close, and he wasn't going to let that happen if he could help it.

"Same way we took down The World," Jack said, cigarette forgotten as he leaned forward and looked back over his shoulder at David. "We organize and we get our man Denton to put it in the papers. And if he won't, we put out our own paper again, get the word out. One thing Pulitzer got right: the paper tells people what to think. So we gotta get them thinking our way."

"It's a big job."

"Yeah," Jack said with a little sigh, some of the fire draining out of him as he leaned back to press his shoulder against David's. "Sure would have been nice to see Santa Fe."

This time David's stomach flipped for a different reason, because the thought of Jack so far away…but then again, at least if he was out West he wouldn't get himself killed by the union busters.

"Hey, after we get things square with the kids we should head out to Santa Fe together," Jack said, grin right back in place and David couldn't help grinning back.

"What, you and me?"

"Sure," Jack said, pressing their shoulders together just a little harder for a second. "Soon as your dad gets better, of course. We could take the train out west, find a little piece of land. The place is lousy with land for the taking, all you have to do is stake your claim. You'll see."

"What about Sarah?"

Jack shrugged, shoulder moving against David's and it felt so _right_ that David wished he'd just kept his mouth shut and played along. It was just talk, after all; he knew that, but then again, Jack had almost left once. So if he did it again and he asked David to go with him…for the first time in his life David wasn't sure he'd choose his family.

"Look, your sister's all right," Jack answered, "but you and me, we're partners. Right?"

Jack was looking at him like he was waiting for an answer, but David didn't trust himself to say anything. He wasn't sure what he wanted from Jack exactly, but he knew if he opened his mouth he'd say something he couldn't take back. So instead he just nodded, and when Jack grinned at him David had to clench his fists hard to keep from touching. And he wasn't sure why, because Jack touched him all the time and David knew he wouldn't mind. Only this felt different somehow, like something had changed in the past few minutes and he wasn't sure what.

"Come on," Jack said, pushing himself off the ground and reaching out a hand to help David up. "Your folks are probably waiting for us."

David thought about arguing, pointing out that they'd just send Les or Sarah to look for them if they stayed out too long, but instead he slid his hand into Jack's and let Jack pull him to his feet. A couple extra minutes on the roof wouldn't matter one way or another, and if Jack was ready…well, David was willing to follow. After all, he didn't really mind sharing Jack with other people. He knew now that Jack wanted him around more than anyone, and that was enough.


End file.
